The acoustics of the environments that many people live and work in are often just accepted because there has not been the ability to affect much improvement. In the office environment particularly, acoustics remain a significant issue for many of the occupants. While the need for improved office sound management is clear, there are substantial needs beyond the confines of the office. An example are the recent changes in the law in Canada and the U.S. have placed strong new requirements on health providers to higher levels of confidentiality and privacy in their obtaining and handling patient information. The implementation of enhanced acoustic privacy is an evolving result of the implementation of these new laws. Health care facilities throughout the U.S. and Canada seek ways to provide the appropriate privacy for their patient interactions.
In a recent nationwide survey of corporate office workers commissioned by the American Society of Interior Designers, more than 70 percent of respondents indicated that their productivity would increase if their workplaces were less distracting. Always an issue, achieving acoustical privacy in open plan offices has become even harder in recent years. Contributing factors include the widespread use of speaker phones, the mixing of informal teaming or conference areas with personal cubicles, and the reduction of overall cubicle size, which has resulted in a significant increase in workstation density. In addition, new types of equipment, such as bigger computer monitors, provide a larger sound-reflective surface area within individual work spaces.
During the thirty years since the introduction of the open-plan workplace, manufacturers of office furniture have sought ways to improve the sound environment for open-plan office workers with only marginal success. All have recommended using a form of sound masking to augment the sound control provided by architecture elements (ceiling tiles and floor coverings) and the office furniture systems themselves.
Though often recommended, many users of the open-plan furniture do not implement any form of sound masking technology. The exact reasons vary by customer but in addition to high system and installation cost, there are issues with the complexity of the installation, intrusiveness of the sound masking system, and the lack of flexibility of such systems. Most sound masking systems are permanently installed in each location and do not easily adjust to changing office use plans. These systems are neither movable nor typically adjustable by the inhabitants (talkers). All those within the defined space of the sound masking system are exposed to its effects regardless of need or desire. In addition, the “white” or “pink” noise that is used in these masking systems is only marginally effective for enhancing speech privacy. White noise is a random noise that contains an equal amount of energy per frequency band. Pink noise has an equal amount of energy per octave. In order to create true speech privacy, white/pink noise systems, because of the technique they are based on, are set at a volume so high as to cause discomfort to those exposed to the systems. In summary, masking technology is substantially limited in its effectiveness and incapable of fulfilling the need for speech privacy in most applications within offices and other work spaces. In particular, speech privacy while using a telephone or other communication device is not addressed by current technology.